"There lived a 'prentice, once, in our city, And of the craft of victuallers was he..."

Little Whole Wheat Loaves.

Let's talk about bread shall we.

O! How wonderful to eat bread!

When I realized I could no longer eat gluten I was very sad about having to give up bread. Warm fluffy bread is just about the most comforting food I can think of.

Bread with Cinnamon and Sugar sprinkled on it makes me think of my childhood. Bread dipped into hearty soup is a perfect lunch on a chilly day. And don't even get me started on grilled, open faced, tomato and cheese sandwiches with oregano sprinkled on top.

Mouth.

Watering.

Now.

So, when I discovered that I could make warm, fluffy gluten-free bread I was overjoyed. In breaking with my tradition of trying to make everything by hand and from scratch, I use a bread machine. This is one shortcut I don't mind. All the sensory enjoyment of making bread by hand is missing when you make gluten-free bread. You don't knead it because there is no gluten to activate by kneading. The dough is just kind of sticky and wet and not very fun to put your hands into.

I make bread for David and myself on Mondays. He gets a French Bread-style loaf with rosemary in it, and I get a gluten-free loaf or as I like to call it: My Bean Bread.

I love that my week starts with bread: basic, nourishing, aromatic. It encourages me to do other basic and nourishing activities throughout the rest of my week. It makes me want to cook yummy things to dip bread into.

I do laundry on Mondays also. I love the experience of looking out my kitchen window to see laundry flapping on the clothes line while smelling my bread baking. In that moment I pretend I live in a little house on the prairie and Pa is around the corner chopping wood for us. It also makes me happy that we are saving money by baking our own bread--and of course it tastes better.

When I first got the bread machine I experimented with a lot of different recipes trying to find the perfect one. I did finally settle on one that I really like, but it tastes almost exactly the same as the Bob's Red Mill mix that I usually end up using. I believe it is called Gluten-Free Wonderful Homemade Bread Mix. And it is just that, wonderful. It gets big and airy, the crust is perfectly golden and I love eating a piece of gluten-free bread that does not need to be toasted twice or loaded up with butter. An added bonus is that nothing about it resembles a brick, which is what most store bought gluten-free breads feel like.

Here is the recipe that I have used when I don't have the mix on hand. I find the mix to be easier. With this recipe you end up needing to store a lot of different kinds of flour and I just don't have that much pantry space.

Four Flour Bread
From "The Gluten-Free Gourmet" by Bette Hagman

This should be doubled for use in a 2 Lb setting on a bread machine.

2 Cups Flour Flour Bean Mix *
1 1/2 Teaspoons Xanthan Gum
1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon Unflavored Gelatin
1 Teaspoon Egg Replacer ( I use one egg instead)
2 Tablespoons Sugar
2 1/4 Teaspoons Dry Yeast Granules
1 Egg plus 1 Egg White ( I use 2 whole eggs)
3 Tablespoons Butter
1 Teaspoon Dough Enhancer ( I use Apple Cider Vinegar)
1 Cup (more or less) Warm Water


-Warm water according to instructions for your bread machine. Mine indicates between 80 and 90 degrees.
-Combine flour mix, xanthan gum, salt, gelatin, egg replacer (omit if using egg) and sugar, in a bowl.
-Combine eggs, butter (melted) and vinegar and whisk together. Add most of the water.

The remaining water should be added as needed after the bread has started mixing in the bread machine.

Place wet and dry ingredients in bread machine in the order suggested by the manual.

For my machine I put wet ingredients on the bottom and then dry on top making sure all the wet is covered by the dry. Then I make a well in the top of the dry ingredients and put the yeast in the well so that it won't get wet.

My machine has a gluten-free setting so I use that setting which gives me more frequent mixing and less rises. You can also use a white bread setting with a medium crust.

*Four Flour Bean Mix:

2/3 part Garfava bean flour
1/3 part Sorgum flour
1 part Cornstarch
1 part Tapioca flour

Eventually I will have used up all the random kinds of gluten-free flour in my pantry and I will just buy these four flours and mix up a big batch of this to use as a baking mix. If you are just starting out baking gluten-free, this is what I would recommend doing. This mix can be easily substituted cup for cup with wheat flour. It also works well in cookies and cakes, but I always add extra xanthan gum and fat (usually oil) to make sure its moist enough and sticks together.

Well, those of you who have no interested in gluten-free baking are probably bored stiff! Here is a little pictorial journal of my cooking adventures this week to wake you up:

My new favorite Kitchen activity is making stock.

Lately I have been saving all the left over bits of onion and garlic along with peels of carrots, outer leaves of cabbage and potato skins in a bucket in my fridge labeled "stock scraps". When this is full, I throw it all in a pot, add some cold water, 10 peppercorns and simmer for an afternoon. The most exciting part about it is that I would have composted all that stuff anyway. Now I've got stock and compost. Welcome to free Vegetable stock!

This is Curried Cauliflower. Gone in one day.

Cauliflower.

Brain.

Cauliflower is one of those foods that has never been on my favorite list. I enjoy lots of different kinds of vegetables but cauliflower always seemed so bland. Not really crunchy like a carrot, but not soft either. Sort of flavorless and that taupe color...Yuck! Plus, it looks like a brain.

However all of that has changed with the discovery of a recipe for curried cauliflower. Now I can easily eat a whole head of cauliflower in one sitting. David and I sometimes fight over who gets the last bit.

I have a little notebook in the kitchen where I write recipes that are home runs in the taste department. The rule is that I have to have made the recipe at least 3 times and loved it. This recipe is among that august company. I have had to repent to The Cauliflower for my past abuses, but now we are great friends.

Curried Cauliflower

1/4 Cup Olive Oil
1 1/2 Teaspoon Turmeric
1 Teaspoon Ginger
1 Chopped Onion
1 Chopped Cauliflower
1 1/2 Teaspoon Salt
1/2 Teaspoon Cayenne (more=spicy)
2 Tablespoon Lemon Juice
1 Can Diced Tomatoes (or about 1 1/2 Cups)
2 Tablespoon Cilantro ( I use tons more)

-Heat oil and add spices (except Cayenne) and onion - cook 3 minutes
-Stir in Cauliflower, Cayenne, Lemon, Salt, and Tomato.
-Cover and Simmer for 20 minutes.
-Sprinkle with chopped Cilantro and eat!

These Illustrious Players....

...Plus these noble fellows...

...Equals Rishta: Egyptian Lentils. Yum!

And just in case you thought cooking was the only thing on my mind, I found these friends appearing in the garden:

Spring brings Baby Lettuces!

Anna Banana, jump into the stew:
Gravy and carrots are good for you.
Good for your teeth,
And your fingernails too,
So Anna Banana, jump into the stew!

Happy cooking everyone.

Paraprosdokian Perhaps

Warning:
This has turned into quite a lengthy blog due to the fact that I have been a bit behind on the blogging. Let's forgo the part where I make excuses and tuck right in.

But first a disclaimer:
I have been asked to share my recipe for gluten-free bread. And I will! That recipe, among others, will arrive in the next blog on happenings in the kitchen. In honor of my brother's request to write more stuff about food, I will be covering such topics as a) how Cauliflower looks like brains and b) my attempts at making bitter leafy greens taste good.

And now an interlude:
Let me introduce you to a new friend of mine: Simon Ferdinand Merely. Below is a photo of him. He would be positively aghast if he new it had been taken at such an uncomely angle. For shame! Fortunately this is not a cameo appearance; he returns toward the end in a slightly more flattering pose.






I declare! On to more serious matters:
Two weeks ago David and I celebrated our anniversary. We went to stay on a friend's houseboat for a few days. The funny part is that we had no idea it was a house boat until we saw it. We thought it was a house by the lake! It turned out to be wonderfully perfect. We cooked in the little kitchen, enjoyed hours of reading, watched movies, gave each other gifts of more books, and rested.

Eating Indian food (cooked by David) on the houseboat. Quirky rabbit rug for atmosphere!

My card to David. A tiny packet of images from a medieval manuscript and hymns; a small handmade book titled "50 Things I Love About David"; an accordion-style card full of quotes and thoughts on our first year.

After a few days on the boat we drove out to Laity Lodge and enjoyed an inspiring weekend in the company of some of our favorite writers. The Chrysostom Society was having their annual meeting and we just happened to be out there at the same time. We enjoyed meals with them where they fired limericks back and forth and talked about publishing and books and a common love of good words. It was amazing to have conversation with authors whose books have so shaped me.

I spent most of the day working in the well-stocked art studios making things out of sheet of copper--a new material and technique to love! We left feeling so refreshed and inspired. Truly a great way to start our second year of marriage. On the way back to Austin we stopped and ate in Fredericksburg. Spicy sausage was the perfect completion of a great week.

Working in the art studio at Laity Lodge.

My little copper plaque.

Eating German in Fredericksburg. (German food, that is, not an actual German.)

Hungry animals loose in FredricksBurg!

I have been reading Grimm's Complete Fairy Tales again. I am overwhelmed by how unusual they are. It's really a great exercise for my imagination. People are always getting turned into birds or flowers, Witches appear everywhere, and someone is almost always either being captured by the wicked or banished to a tower. It's great and sometimes pretty strange! The best thing is, they all end happily and the good folks always survive. Ahhhh that's the world I want to inhabit.

Creatively, things have been busy for me. David went out of town for a few days and I took the opportunity to make a huge mess on the dinning room table. Snips of thread, scraps of fabric and pins everywhere. I covered some floor pillows for my sister-in-law in a fun red corduroy, altered and repaired tons of clothes that had been in the mending basket for months, and made some fun and weird little stuffed animals for a friend's baby shower. It was great not to have to clean it all up at the end of the day!

Meet Simon and Symore Merely. The first friends from the family of Merely's. Samples currently being made in the test studio, soon available for sale on etsy. (Cat pattern came from the awesome book: "Amy Butler's little stitches for little ones")

Two weekends ago our nephews, Cormac and Brendan, came over. We had a grand old time playing in the art studio. They helped me dig out some beeswax from old sculptures and watched me burn wax out of shoes with my propane torch. I love my propane torch.

We also made some awesome monoprints. One printed with me in the garage while the other practiced doing very important things, like balancing a wooden pole on your nose, with Uncle David in the front yard. It was glorious.


Lots of new creative projects are on my to-do list including making more little creatures. Can't wait to introduce you to Chalmers Tavish Merely!

Simmers and Sputters

I love the winter light. This afternoon I was sitting by the window in our front room catching up on some email correspondence enjoying the grey light and white winter sky criss-crossed by all those bare Pecan branches. The sun was setting and I loved watching the light turn dark grey and then grey blue and then deep smokey charcoal; it was enough to make me go right out into the studio and start on a new drawing. But I didn't. Instead I went right into the kitchen and made some Butternut Squash Soup.

Homemade Granola in our Giant Jar

This kind of experience has been recurring the last two weeks. Most of my desire to be creative in the studio has been re-routed into the kitchen and so my hours are full of quiet domesticity instead. This is not really a bad thing. I just need to figure out how to fit the art making between the keeping of a house and garden.

David getting domestic with the Nieces

Speaking of gardens, David and I enjoyed a truly giant head of cabbage from my parent's garden. Cooked up with bacon, onion and garlic I was surprised to find it was rather spicy tasting, far more interesting than your grocery store variety cabbage. The head was so big we only used half of it, so yesterday I cooked another large pan full with some Apple Cider Vinegar and Mustard Greens from the garden. Now that's some healthy food.

Giant Cabbage Head

We have also had Kale in our smoothies this week, Chard with our eggs, Hummus made with Flax Seeds, Rutabega with a Roasted Chicken, and Apple, Pecan, Rasin Whole Wheat Muffins to which, after tasting, David said: "These are healthy muffins!"

Healthy Muffins, Gluten-Free Bread and Tomato Basil Soup

Healthy eggs and marginally healthy sausage

I think our bodies are enjoying some top rate nutrition.

Pomegranate with Yogurt and Honey

Besides cooking we have been tweaking our ever morphing house with some new shelves for our piles of books, Spackle and wall touch-ups, new red paint on some outdoor metal chairs and a small shelf transformed with robins egg blue paint and light green and cream paper lining. Add in some general garden tidying and pruning and really we have been quite busy.

Next week is our 1 Year anniversary of being married and so I doubt much creative work will be taking place as we are going out of town to celebrate. But things are rumbling... I have dreams of imaginary rabbits and magic birds to deal with soon. There are also girls in red dresses and Cranes on spindly legs to make worlds for. And then I still have all the Octopus and Squid adventures to chronicle! Soon, soon.

Finished and Framed and Forwarded On

At last the commission is finished and I am happy to be able to post some pictures. The piece is made up of four 18"x24" drawing/collages on a soft blue gray paper. All of the drawing is done with either prismacolor or my favorite drawing utensil: gold paint pen! I actually used up an entire green pencil coloring all the leaves. Now that is a lot of green.

The collage paper came from some abstract monoprints I made and some purchased hand made papers that I could not resist buying-- with metallic copper and silver patterns who could.

Pencil Stub of Green

This has been by far the most difficult commissioned piece I have worked on; for some reason it took far longer that I had planned to complete (perhaps this is due to the fact that its about 4 times the size I thought it would be). I spent lots of hours standing in front of it with furrowed brow "thinking."

It just seemed to come together so slowly. Good thing I had lots of scarves to knit for Christmas so that my brain could wander and figure out what it wanted to do.


In the end I am thrilled with the results and I learned a tremendous amount in the process. But most importantly it got me into a nice tidy schedule of working which I hope to continue.

The piece has no title but a few main themes:

*A Boat carrying seeds with a mast that is an alive and growing tree reflects ideas on resting and provision in the journey despite storms or calm waters.

*An anchor that is a seed symbolizing the promise of life from death holding us firm with hope to keep going. Nets for catching and holding promises, dreams and gifts.

*Large plants growing from the bottom of the seabed illustrating ideas of faith, and a kingdom which is like a seed that is planted and grows into a tree so large that all the birds of heaven can come and nest in it. Faith that can cause a tree to be uprooted and planted in the sea.


*A nest and eggs of a bird of the air found surviving in a foreign place, life happening in a place that is not home.

The text woven through all 4 pieces is taken from a poem by Luci Shaw. Her poetry always seems to fit perfectly with ideas I am working on. I hope she does not mind if I glean.

(click the image to read)

"Without Words" from her book What the Light was Like

Now that the commission is happily framed and hanging in its new home I can move on to the next project which is printing a linocut for my friend Carol who lives in North Carolina and is a pretty spiffy artist herself. She just finished a huge project where she made life size (or really larger than life size) Mary paper dolls. The ones I saw in person were just beautiful; anything which has that much gold leaf on it always attracts the magpie in me.

Carol likes the following two prints and has asked me to choose between the two and surprise her. But I can't decide! So take a look, leave a comment, and help me pick.

Ambrose, Thornburn and Addie Share Secrets

Gabby, Magnus and Farley Played With The Stranger From Sunday Until Almost Tuesday

Annunciation

Today I am finding all kind of things to do besides finish the piece waiting for me in the garage. Now that I know exactly what needs to be done to finish I am suddenly bored. No matter how hard I try to convince myself that I will love playing with gold paint and coloring perfect lines of green I just don't believe it.

Sadly, it's much more exciting when I have no idea what comes next. Usually I am able to work on many pieces at one time, I just switch when I get bored. Somehow they all eventually get finished. However, this piece is a commission with a deadline and so I don't have the luxury of taking a break and starting something else.

Instead of working I have been making bread, working in the garden cleaning leaves out of pots and rearranging plants so they don't look so scraggly. Now I am listening to "An Old Fashioned Christmas" on the record player and reading blogs about other people who are busy being creative. Earlier I washed 26 Ziplock bags.

So now that I am thoroughly convicted of my terrible lack of discipline I am scurrying off to shut myself up in the garage for hours! No breaks even for tea! After all (to quote someone I love very much) "I get to do this!".

I leave you with this beautiful painting and poem on this the 5th day of Advent.

"The Annunciation' 1876-79', by Edward Burne-Jones (1833-1898)

...
She didn't notice at first the air had changed.
She didn't, because she had no expectation
except the moment and what she was doing, absorbed
in it without the slightest reservation.

Things grew brighter, more distinct, themselves,
in a way beyond explaining. This was her home,
yet somehow things grew more homelike. Jars on the shelves
gleamed sharply: tomatoes, peaches, even the crumbs

on the table grew heavy with meaning and a sure repose
as if they were forever. When at last she saw
from the corner of her eye the gold fringe of his robe
she felt no fear, only a glad awe,

the Word already deep inside her as she replied
yes to that she'd chosen all her life.

Annunciation by Robert Seigel
from "a pentecost of finches"

..

Dreamy Autumn Days

When I signed up for this blog I had every intention of posting something substantial within the first week. Only now almost 3 months later am I sitting down to write something!
After a helter skelter fall full of travels and birthdays and deadlines I am finally able to sit down with a cup of Cappuccino Rooibos tea (which can be found here among other treasures) and write. Hooray!

A ceramic piece made by our friend Rick Van Dyke given to us for a wedding gift.

I am working almost every day now in the studio, other wise known as our garage. I am currently finishing a piece that my friend Ben commissioned and can't wait to post pictures of it as soon as I am through. It has been a fun and challenging project for me. I feel like it's a great start to a whole new body of work. I spent most of last year making block prints and it's time for a bit of a change into something more risky. So, I am experimenting with drawing and collage again and finding that I love the immediacy of it after all the printing. It's just fantastic to be making marks on paper again.
It has been so fun to be puttering away out there in the cold weather with a warm hat cutting paper and drawing mustard greens and ships and nests all onto wonderful seagreen/grey fabriano paper.
I am losing hours while split pea soups simmers in the house on the stove and I am loving it.

Since it's been a long haul to get a space cleared in the garage I am posting a few pictures of my work space and some of things around the house that make me happy right now.

My inspiration board.

The wee art space.

Inks and things.

Paper Waiting to be made into something beautiful or pasted onto my drawings.

Organized colors.

Picking our first Mustard Greens on Thanksgiving day. It was unfortunately rather balmy at around 70 degrees, thus the t-shirt. Thankfully the next day it was back to chilly.

The Autumn is my favorite season for just about everything, food, clothing, weather, holidays and light. It's the perfect time to be cozy, the perfect time for dreamy music and mohair scarves and the perfect time to settle into a rhythm. We have been gone so much of the last few months that being home and quiet is a real treat for me. It's also really exciting that the cool weather seem to finally be here for good.
Now, I know it's December 1st and for many of you living in the northern states I am sure it seems silly to be talking of Autumn this late. But it takes a while for Autumn to reach Texas. I really appreciate it when it gets here no matter how late. I am content to be carving out my own little rhythm of working, learning, making, cooking and gardening. I hope it becomes steady and solid and at the end of the winter I discover that I have a treasure of creative projects to show for it.

Ornaments waiting for their tree.

Sunday was the beginning of Advent and we got out all the Christmas stuff... I guess that means I have to admit Autumn is almost over. :(